If Ramakrishna Were Alive Today (continued)

[anbu]

If Ramakrishna Were Alive Today (continued)
Swami Chetanananda

Seeing Through the Physical Eyes and the Spiritual Eye

With our physical eyes we see the world and all its beings, which are
created by

God's maya. There is no end to this visualization. It is because maya
makes One into

many that this world is full of variety and diversity. When through
sadhana we

transform our physical eyes into the spiritual or mental eye, we see
unity in the

multiplicity. This is called same-sightedness or knowledge of Oneness.
At that time

one realizes: "As the same nondual fire, after it has entered the
world, becomes

different according to whatever it burns, so also the same nondual
Atman, dwelling in

all beings, becomes different according to whatever It enters. And It
also exists

without."
M. wrote: "Once somebody asked the Master, 'Is God with form or
without form?' The

Master answered: 'I have seen the Mother both ways. She is the
indivisible

Satchidananda, and again She assumes various forms for the devotees.
At Kalighat (in

South Calcutta) I saw the Divine Mother playing with some children and
chasing a

butterfly. Another time I saw Her walking on the Adi Ganga.' On one
occasion the

Master told us: 'Mother has come. She is wearing a red-bordered sari
and has tied a

bunch of keys in the corner of Her cloth.' He said this in the
presence of Keshab Sen

and others in his room at Dakshineswar. People heard the Master's
words, but the

Master alone heard the Mother's words. Another day he said: 'The
Mother is going up

and down the stairs in the temple. Her hair is dishevelled, and Her
anklets are

making a jhun-jhun sound.' Once in Cossipore he said, 'Today I saw the
Mother playing

a vina (a stringed instrument).' The Master was absorbed in the
formless aspect of

the Mother for six months during his sadhana.
"Not only did he see God, but he also used to talk to the Divine
Mother, as we talk

among ourselves, in front of people. One day he said, 'The Mother has
come.' Then he

began to talk to Her, saying: 'Well, Mother, to whom should I listen?
This person is

saying this and the other person something else.' Then the Divine
Mother said

something to him. Again the Master said: 'I understand, Mother. I
shall listen to You

and no one else.'"
Our eyes and ears are not as subtle as Sri Ramakrishna's, so we do not
see the Divine

Mother as he did. We read about the Master; we listen to his message;
we think of his

divine play; but still he is not living to us. Sadhana is sweet and
joyful when the

aspirant uses his or her feeling and thinking capabilities together.
Some people try

to understand God only through the intellect; but they do not realize
that

intellectual understanding and true realization are not the same. For
example, a man

understands that smoking causes cancer, but still he smokes.
M. sometimes advised the devotees to meditate on various scenes in the
Master's life,

such as the following three scenarios:
1. In the evening the Master is seated on his bed, absorbed in deep
meditation. After

meditation he says, "Those who think of God day and night don't need
to practise

spiritual disciplines at the stipulated times."
2. There is a dark cloud over the north side of the temple garden; its
reflection

falls on the Ganges. This cloud is behind the Master as he is
returning to his room

from the Panchavati.
3. At Balaram Mandir the Master said to Balaram's father: "All
religions and all

paths call upon their followers to pray to one and the same God.
Therefore one should

not show disrespect for any religion or religious opinion."
The famous writer Ishan Chandra Roy wrote an article titled "How to
See Sri

Ramakrishna," from which the following is taken: "One of my Christian
friends

lamented to me: 'If I had been born 1900 years ago, I could have seen
Jesus Christ.'

A devotee of Ramakrishna also said, 'If only I could have lived with
the Master!'

Their attitude is that their lives would be blessed if they could see
their Chosen

Ideals. Once the present writer also had a desire to see Ramakrishna.
God always

fulfils a sincere wish. Someone may say that when a person dies one
can no longer see

that person with his physical eyes, so how can a person see
Ramakrishna when he is no

longer in a physical form?
"Undoubtedly it is a great fortune to see a great soul or an avatar.
But would every

human being truly see and recognize them? Thousands of people saw Lord
Jesus. But the

Pharisees and Roman soldiers did not see Jesus the way Mary Magdalene
and Joseph of

Arimathea saw him. They would not have persecuted and crucified him if
they had seen

the real nature of Jesus Christ. So, true seeing is not seeing through
these mortal

eyes only.
"In the eyes of a mother, a dark ugly boy is Nilmani (the blue jewel);
and a blind

boy is Padmalochan (the lotus-eyed one). A lover sees Helen's beauty
in an Ethiope's

brow. A man neglects a woman, and another man accepts the same woman,
offering her

everything he owns. Why do such things happen? Because it is better to
see through

the mental eye than through the physical eyes. What one cannot see
through the

physical eyes, one can see or catch through the mental eye.
"Some may think that seeing through the mental eye is actually
imagination, so it is

unreal. This is not true. The beauty of the child is reflected in the
mother's eyes.

That beauty really exists, so it is real. Therefore, just as the
result of seeing

through the physical eyes is true, so also is the result of seeing
through the mental

eye true."
The scriptures say that one can achieve everything through love - even
the vision of

God. When we see Ramakrishna's pictures and the places where he
enacted his lila,

when we read his conversations and listen to the songs he sang, we
feel the Master

awaken in our hearts.

The Fortunate Ones Can See
According to Chaitanya Charitamrita: "Gaur (Chaitanya) is still
enacting his divine

play; only a fortunate few can see it."
We sometimes lament our bad luck that we never had the opportunity to
see

Ramakrishna. While reading The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri
Ramakrishna and His

Divine Play, we are inspired for the moment, but afterwards we are
again depressed.

We lament that our lives have been lived in vain.
In this respect, M. gives us a little hope. He told some devotees:
"One can see the

Master even now in Dakshineswar. First one should know by reading the
books when and

where the Master sat and what he did; then one should connect oneself
with that place

and imagine the presence of the Master at that time. Thus one can have
the

association of the Master and one can even see him. What is
imagination today is

realization tomorrow. One can have this vision when one's imagination
is deeply

intensified. According to the Yoga scriptures, everything is present;
there is no

past or future."
One day Latu came to Dakshineswar to visit the Master, but he was told
the Master had

left for Kamarpukur. This news did not lessen his tremendous longing
to see the

Master. He sat on the bank of the Ganges and started to weep. Someone
had told him

that Sri Ramakrishna was ever-present at Dakshineswar and that anyone
who called on

him would see him. Holding steadfastly to this idea, the boy sat there
from midday

until evening. Ramlal, the Master's nephew, was employed as a priest
in the Kali

temple at that time. He noticed Latu in the temple garden. He
describes the scene in

his own words: "As many times as I said to Latu, 'The Master has gone
home,' so many

times did he repeat, 'No, you do not understand; the Master is
definitely here.' I

found I could not convince the boy, so I went to the temple to conduct
the vesper

service. When it was over, I returned to the spot where I had left
Latu, taking with

me some prasad for him to eat. There I discovered him bowing down and
touching his

forehead to the ground. Mystified, I kept quiet. After a moment or
two, when the boy

rose and saw me standing before him, he seemed surprised and asked me:
'Ah! Where has

the Master gone?' Dumbfounded, I gave him the prasad and went back to
the temple."
Ramlal described a similar incident, in which the Master appeared
before a monk: "A

young Ramait monk (a worshipper of Ramachandra) in Ayodhya had a
vision that God had

again incarnated on earth, somewhere in the east. In order to see him,
the monk

started on foot eastward from Ayodhya. When he reached Bengal he heard
that there was

a great saint named Sri Ramakrishna near Calcutta. He finally found
Dakshineswar

after a long search and asked someone, 'Where is Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa?' The people

of the Kali temple told him that the Master had just passed away a few
days before.

Hearing this heartbreaking news, the monk exclaimed: 'What! He passed
away? I have

come from Ayodhya on foot (nearly a thousand miles) just to see him. I
went through

so much hardship to get here and he has left the body!' The young monk
began to sob.
"The manager of the Kali temple offered him some food from the temple
store but he

refused it. He went to the Panchavati and stayed there for two or
three days without

eating. One night Sri Ramakrishna appeared before him and said: 'You
have not eaten

anything for several days. I have brought this pudding for you. Please
eat it.' He

fed the monk and disappeared.
"The next morning I went to the Panchavati and found the monk full of
joy. I asked:

'What happened? You were so unhappy yesterday. Why are you so cheerful
today?' Then

he told me everything. He even showed me the earthen bowl in which the
Master had

brought the pudding."1

To Live in the Abode of Ramakrishna
Is Ramakrishna only in Kamarpukur, Dakshineswar, Cossipore, or Belur
Math? He is God;

he is everywhere, beyond space and time. He dwells in every creature,
but he

manifests especially in human beings. M. said: "The Master graciously
put special

glasses on my eyes, so I see everything red (the colour of love). I
feel that

everyone is my relative, my very own." This is called the eye of love.
When this eye

opens, one feels that all are children of God and everyone belongs to
the Master.
Sometimes devotees imagine that after death they will go to
Ramakrishna-loka, the

abode of Ramakrishna. Once Swami Vijnanananda said: "Sometimes this
question arises

in my mind, 'Where shall I go after death?' In this respect Swami
Shivananda says:

'We shall go to Ramakrishna-loka. We will live there with the Master.'
I say that I

will not go to any place like that. I will not go to any external
world. If one can

keep the Master always in the mind, if one does not forget him even
for a moment,

then one is living with the Master. If one's mind is constantly
absorbed in the

thought of the Master, wherever that person lives, he or she dwells in
the abode of

Ramakrishna." Krishna says in the Gita (12:8): 'Fix your mind on Me
alone, rest your

thought on Me alone, and in Me alone you will live hereafter. Of this
there is no

doubt.'"

M.'s Diary Is the Honeycomb
Bees fly from flower to flower for nectar; they gather it and fill the
honeycomb.

People extract the honey and enjoy it. M. used to run to the temple
garden of

Dakshineswar and to places in Calcutta to gather Ramakrishna-honey,
the Master's

immortal words. He gathered Ramakrishna-honey over a period of five
years, recorded

it in the Gospel, and dispensed it himself for nearly fifty years. He
strongly

believed that anyone who imbibes these immortal words of the Master
will be immortal.
Once M. told some devotees: "I don't claim any credit for it. The
Master's life was a

glowing example of jivanmukti (liberated while living) and videhamukti
(liberated at

the time of death); we lived with him and witnessed those states. One
cannot

understand Vedanta only through reasoning; one needs experience. That
depends on

sadhana. Our doubts disappear when we see a person who is illumined
and free. God

descends as an avatar to manifest the true meaning of the scriptures
and to correct

their distorted interpretations. I am lucky because I associated with
the Master over

a period of five years, and I now understand a little. 'Just as by one
clod of clay

all that is made of clay is known, the modification being only a name
arising from

speech, while the truth is that all is clay.' - This statement of
Chandogya Upanishad

(6:1:4) is an example of videhamukti."
It is said that relationships develop through frequent contact.
Related to this is

the saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." If we can establish a strong
relationship

with God, our lives will be free from anxiety, uncertainty, and fear.
The Master used

to say, "I am and my Divine Mother is." He depended on the Divine
Mother alone, and

none else. As a result, the Mother took care of him.
The Master taught his devotees various ways to establish a
relationship with God. The

Vaishnava scriptures describe five kinds of sadhana: shanta, dasya,
vatsalya, sakhya,

and madhura. One can create a relationship with God by cultivating any
one of those

attitudes. Standing on the southern ghat of the goose pond, the Master
told Narendra:

"Look here. Come a little more often. You are a newcomer. On first
acquaintance

people visit each other quite often, as is the case with a lover and
his sweetheart.

(Narendra and M. laugh.) So please come, won't you?" Narendra, a
member of the Brahmo

Samaj, was very particular about his promises. He said with a smile,
"Yes sir, I

shall try."
The Master said to some people: "It will be enough if you visit this
place

occasionally." By "this place" he meant himself in particular; but
more generally he

was referring to God. The Master was God in human form. M. wrote: "The
Master said,

'Seeing an avatar is the same as seeing God.' Jesus also said: 'He
that hath seen me

hath seen the Father. I and my Father are one.' Why did the Master say
that it would

be enough to visit him? Because people would be awakened by seeing
him. Why do people

practise japa and meditation? So that they can feel the presence of
God. We saw with

our own eyes that God was seated in front of us in human form. So the
Master would

say, 'It will be enough if you visit this place occasionally.' He
meant himself."

I Do Not Know Thy True Nature
To understand Ramakrishna, we go to different teachers and monks, pray
in temples,

practise spiritual disciplines, and read many books and scriptures.
Sometimes we cry

and lament, blaming our karma and our previous lives, and some of us
think that we

have been cursed. But we do not realize that time is a factor. Krishna
said in the

Gita: "Kalena atmani vindati - One knows in the course of time."
Ramakrishna said:

"The mother bird does not break the shell of the egg until the right
moment arrives."

One cannot get fruit as soon as one plants a seed in the ground. One
may have to wait

several years before one reaps a harvest. Similarly, in spiritual life
one should be

like a farmer who tills the ground whether there is rain or drought.
If one continues

practising spiritual disciplines, one day divine grace will dawn.
Once a brahmachari told Swami Saradananda: "Swami, we have so many
defects, I doubt

whether the Master will ever reveal himself to unfortunate ones like
us." Consoling

the brahmachari, the swami said: "Go on calling the Master. As a
goldsmith heats an

alloy to remove the impurities, so the Master will remove all
impurities from your

mind and give shape to it. He will definitely reveal himself to you.
Don't fear. Have

faith."
Some householder devotees believed that because they had met the
Master, they would

definitely attain liberation. They therefore had no anxiety on that
account. Some

even believed that they no longer had to practise spiritual
disciplines because they

had seen the Master. But Swami Vivekananda had a different opinion on
this subject.

He said: "It is not true that those who have not met the Master will
not attain

liberation and those who have seen him three times will be
liberated."
Even the great soul Swami Vivekananda said that he understood the
Master very little.

Sometimes we try to understand Ramakrishna's true nature by studying
the

conversations of the Master's direct disciples and close devotees. We
are frustrated

in our efforts at times, but sometimes we see some rays of hope.
According to the

devotional scriptures, ashabaddha (holding onto hope) is a good sign;
it indicates

love for God.
Swami Shivananda told this story: You will be surprised to hear that
many Muslim men

and women these days worship Sri Ramakrishna as Muhammad, the
messenger of God. One

year I visited the Nilgiri Hills (in South India). The devotees there
arranged for my

residence in a bungalow at Koonoor. Learning that I was there, a
Muslim doctor and

his family came all the way from Bombay to see me. Upon inquiry I
found that he was a

famous physician in Bombay who had been educated in England and had a
very good

practice. He was accompanied by his wife and two handsome sons.
In the course of conversation the doctor said to me, "We have come to
see you, but my

wife is especially eager to speak to you." Saying this, he moved to
the adjoining

room. His wife saluted me with great devotion and disclosed many
intimate things

related to her spiritual life. Since childhood she had been a devotee
of Krishna. She

worshipped Krishna as a child and occasionally had visions of him.
After reading the

Master's life and teachings, she had become very devoted to him. It
was her

conviction that her Chosen Deity Krishna had been born again as Sri
Ramakrishna.
I noticed that she had profound love and devotion for the Master. She
was quite

intense in her spiritual practices and the Master had blessed her in
many ways. When

taking leave of me, she knelt down and bowed to me, saying, "Please
bless me by

touching my head with your hand. You had the blessed privilege of
associating with

Sri Ramakrishna and you were blessed by him. Please touch my head with
the hand that

once touched Sri Ramakrishna!" And how she wept! I felt in my heart
again and again:

"Glory be unto the Lord! Blessed is Thy power! Who will understand
Thee?" The hymn

describing the greatness of Shiva came to my mind.
O Lord, I do not know Thy nature nor what Thou art.
Whatever Thou art, O Great God, my salutations to Thee again and
again.
Actually the same thing can be said about the Master.

Shall We Be Satisfied With the Picture Only?
There were no cameras during the times of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and
Christ, so we

really do not know what they looked like. Different painters and
sculptors have used

their imagination when making images of those avatars; we satisfy our
souls by

visualizing those images. Six photographs of Sri Ramakrishna were
taken: four while

he was alive and two after he had passed away. We know from these
pictures exactly

how the Master looked. We do not need to try to imagine what he looked
like. This

helps our meditation.
The three well-known pictures of the Master were taken while he was in
Samadhi: the

first one was taken during kirtan at Keshab Sen's house in Calcutta;
the second one,

a standing pose, at the Bengal Studio at Radhabazar, Calcutta; and the
third one at

Dakshineswar, while he was seated in front of the Krishna temple. A
fourth picture

was taken by the arrangement of Ram Chandra Datta. When he saw this
picture, the

Master remarked: "I don't look like that." According to Swami
Akhandananda, a direct

disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, when the Master saw the print, he
remarked: "Who is

this? Am I such an angry man?" Ram gave no reply. He understood that
the Master did

not approve of the photo, so he threw both the print and the negative
into the

Ganges.
The Master's devotees would love to see him with their own eyes. Once
a monk asked

Swami Shivananda: "Swami, will my life end after only having seen the
picture of the

Master? Shall I have no realization?" "No, no," replied Swami
Shivananda

encouragingly, "why should it be in the picture alone? You will have
your living

vision here (pointing to his own heart)."
The Holy Mother told a thrilling story about the shrine picture of the
Master (the

seated pose). When she was in Puri, she had no altar, so she put the
picture on a

large can that contained ghee. One day she performed her ritual, then
went to visit

Lord Jagannath in the temple. Upon her return, she saw that the
picture was on the

floor. The Holy Mother said later: "I saw that many red ants were
crawling over the

can, which contained ghee. Because those ants crawled over the picture
of the Master,

he moved to the floor."
Another time a devotee asked: "Does the Master exist in the picture?"
Holy Mother: "Of course he does. The body and the shadow are the same.
And what is

his picture but a shadow? If you pray to him constantly before the
picture, then he

manifests himself through the picture."
Sri Ramakrishna said: "An imitation custard-apple reminds one of the
real fruit."

Similarly, Ramakrishna's picture reminds us of Ramakrishna. One of our
well-known

Hindu families went to Saudi Arabia on business. According to
government policy,

religious pictures are not allowed there. At the airport, the customs
officer found a

framed picture of Ramakrishna in one of the suitcases and asked, "Who
is this?" The

wife replied, "He is my father." The officer raised no objection. The
lady did not

lie; truly, the Master is our real father.
(to be continued)

[Sankhadip Das]

Respected Anbuji,

 

If possible could you please mention the source of this article. Better if you post the scanned copy of the same. In mail the words become scattered.

 

Regards,

Das
 

[Arnab Lahiri]

My heartiest request to Anbu jee is please please dont stop writing
this. Please keep us sending such nector words...
We feel blessed even after reading them.
Thanks a ton.
Arnab Lahiri

[anbu]

Dear Holy Trio Devotees,
I am posting this again since the previous one was scattered.

[anbu]

Dear Sankhadipji,

It was my mistake. I posted it again.

I got this article from Vedanta Centre UK magazine 2007.
http://www.vedantauk.com/articles.htm

-Anbu.

[Sankhadip Das]

Thanks. Oh!! dont say mistake. You are giving us ambrosia and we are becoming immortal.

 

Regards,

Das

 

[anbu]

Dear devotees,

You can find these articles in 2006 Magazines and not in 2007
magazines as i mentioned above.
http://www.vedantauk.com/articles.htm

-Anbu.